Toyota drops appeal on Trulli's Australian penalty

Upon further review, Toyota's Formula One team on Wednesday dropped its
appeal of Jarno Trulli's 25-second penalty handed out after Sunday's
Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Jarno Trulli, Toyota Racing, TF109.
Photo by ...

Upon further review, Toyota's Formula One team on Wednesday dropped its
appeal of Jarno Trulli's 25-second penalty handed out after Sunday's
Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Jarno Trulli, Toyota Racing, TF109.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Trulli, who finished third and celebrated on the podium after the race,
was given the penalty after officials determined he passed Lewis Hamilton
of McLaren Mercedes during a safety-car period under which the race
finished. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica
crashed together three laps before race's end calling out the safety car.
The penalty dropped the Italian to 12th place.

Toyota Motorsport issued a statement that read: "Following the decision
by Australian Grand Prix stewards to impose a 25-second time penalty on
Jarno Trulli, Toyota Motorsport filed notification of its intent to
appeal. This action was taken to preserve any right it may have to
utilize the appeal procedure and to give it time to consider in
appropriate detail all the facts relating to the incident.

"Having considered recent judgments of the International Court of Appeal
and referring to the sporting code, it is believed that any appeal will
be rejected on a procedural point such as that defined under article 152,
paragraph 5 of the sporting code: 'Penalties of driving through or
stopping in pit lanes together with certain penalties specified in FIA
Championship regulations where this is expressly stated, are not
susceptible to appeal.'

"Based on this, Toyota Motorsport has decided that it would serve no
benefit to pursue this course of action."

The penalty promoted Hamilton to third and pulled up other finishers,
including Sebastien Bourdais, whose point for eighth gave Scuderia Toro
Rosso a double-points finish. World driving champion Hamilton began his
title defense starting in 18th position after a gearbox failure during
qualifying penalized him.

The crash with Kubica earned Vettel a 10-spot grid penalty for Malaysia.
Teams assemble Thursday at the Sepang circuit for Sunday's race, another
twilight start. With Australia, the Malaysian race is under appeal by
teams who object to the designs of diffusers, the rear aerodynamic parts,
on Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars. That appeal is scheduled to be
heard April 14 in Paris by the World Motor Sport Council of sanctioning
body the FIA. Results of both races are subject to change.